History of Sex in Cinema:
The Greatest and Most Influential
Sexual Films and Scenes
(Illustrated)
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History of Sex in Cinema: |
See also the multi-part Sexual and Erotic Films in Cinema, The Most Controversial Films of All-Time and the Best and Most Memorable Film Kisses of All Time in Cinematic History. Key to Icon Symbol:
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| Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes (chronological order, by film title) - 1938-1943 Intro | Pre-1920s | 1920-1928 | 1929-1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934-1937 | 1938-1943 | 1944-1946 | 1947-1952 | 1953-1954 | 1955-1957 | 1958-1959 | 1960-1961 | 1962-1963 | 1964 | 1965-1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992-1 | 1992-2 | 1993 | 1994-1 | 1994-2 | 1995-1 | 1995-2 | 1996-1 | 1996-2 | 1997-1 | 1997-2 | 1998-1 | 1998-2 | 1999-1 | 1999-2 | 2000-1 | 2000-2 | 2001-1 | 2001-2 | 2002-1 | 2002-2 | 2003-1 | 2003-2 | 2004-1 | 2004-2 | 2005-1 | 2005-2 | 2006-1 | 2006-2 | 2007-1 | 2007-2 | 2008 | 2009 | |
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Brief Scene Description | Example |
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One scene in Howard Hawks' famous screwball comedy had fluffy, boa-collared, negligee-wearing David Huxley's (Cary Grant) uncensored, emasculated exclamation while jumping up in front of Katharine Hepburn's Aunt Elizabeth (May Robson): "Because I just went gay all of a sudden" - the exclamation has been recognized by many commentators as the moment in film when the meaning of the word 'gay' changed | 
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The film's exploitational taglines: "A throbbing drama of shackled youth!" and "Where Lust was called Just" hinted at its 'educational' plot contents designed to circumvent the Production Code restrictions with a story that warned against underage marriage; the film supposedly had a positive purpose: "...if our story will help to abolish Child Marriage - it will have served its purpose"; it told about the door-to-door moral crusade of schoolteacher Miss Carol (Diana Durrell) to rid the Ozark rural community of Thunderhead Mountain of hillbillies (especially Warner Richmond as Jake Bolby) courting and marrying underage girls; the film's most notorious and gratuitous sequence was at the 30 minute mark -- a 4 minute undressing and nude skinny-dip in a pond surrounded with woods by nubile young 12 year-old actress Shirley Mills (not Miles) in her screen debut (as Jennie Colton), accompanied by young friend Freddie Nulty (Bob Bollinger); as she disrobed, she told him not to undress but to stay onshore, and they discussed how their physical differences were beginning to show ("...we're not what we used to be...we're the same, although you can't see me without my clothes on...now we're grown up"); at the end of her playful swim, she was leered at by Jake from a nearby cliff; this independent film was 'road-showed' by legendary roadshowman Kroger Babb although it was banned in many locations due to its infamous underage nudity |    
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Olympia (1938, Ger.)
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Hitler's commissioned photographer Leni Riefenstahl to make this documentary film (in two parts) about the XI Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 - it opened with a beautiful, silent nude sequence with dancers and athletes to artistically capture the movement of beautiful human bodies to perfection |
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Sex Madness (1938) (aka Human Wreckage, They Must Be Told, Trial Marriage, and About Trial Marriage)
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This film was a typical sex-ploitation melodrama of the period often shown in skid-row theatres - purportedly educational to warn about the perils of sex, but banned by the Legion of Decency; it told about innocent chorus girl Millicent Hamilton (Vivian McGill) who entered the big-city world of burlesque and acquired syphilis due to a free sexual lifestyle and passionate lust ("the crimson path of immorality"); it included taboo subjects strictly forbidden by the Production Code, such as lesbianism, wild parties, sex out of wedlock, and other similar evils | 
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This Civil War-era Best Picture blockbuster included a scene in which Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) dramatically carried resistant Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) up a long flight of stairs - it has often been referred to as the 'conjugal rape' scene; it was followed the next morning by a view of Scarlett's fulfilled, smiling face; the most controversial, much-debated line in the film was Rhett Butler's declaration to Scarlett at the film's conclusion: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" |  
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| Before being censored, this remarkable Disney animated feature was slightly controversial for its depiction of bare-breasted centaurettes (without nipples) in the Pastoral Symphony segment; at the request of the Hays Production Code, the figures were discreetly garlanded with flower bras for cover-up after swimming in a brook; there were also uncensored bare-breasted harpies during the Chernobog "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence |
 
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| Alfred Hitchcock's Best Picture-winning film (his first American film) depicted the devoted and obsessed character of housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), with subtle hints of affectionate lesbianism for the dead Mrs. Rebecca de Winter as she opened the curtains to the bedroom and went through her intimate belongings; there's a strong undercurrent that not only was Danvers expressing her lesbian feelings for Rebecca, but she was also trying to seduce the 2nd Mrs. deWinter; she opened the woman's closet, selected a fur coat, seductively held it next to her own cheek and then brushed it by the cheek of a nameless, horrified, and recoiling second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine), stating: "Feel this. It was a Christmas present from Mr. de Winter. He was always giving her expensive gifts, the whole year round. I keep her underwear on this side..."; she also shows off an embroidered pillowcase on the bed (monogrammed with an "R") and its "delicate" sexy nightgown inside - one of Rebecca's most intimate articles of clothing: "Did you ever see anything so delicate. Look, you can see my hand through it" |
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| They Drive By Night (1940) |
Due to the Code's restrictions on language
and depictions of sexual behavior, some films resorted to using double
entendres to pass the ratings board; a conversation at a truck stop counter
with sexy waitress Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan) was dripping with sexual
overtones: Paul Fabrini (Humphrey Bogart) (referring to Cassie): "Nice
chassis, huh, Joe?" Joe (George Raft): "Classy chassis."
Cassie: "Yeah, and it all belongs to me." Another driver: "I'd
be glad to finance it, baby." Cassie: "Who do you think you're
kidding? You couldn't even pay for the headlights" |
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This widely-acclaimed film from debut film director/actor Orson Welles (24 years old), usually regarded as the greatest film ever made, was focused on the search for the meaning of the last word spoken by tycoon Charles Foster Kane (Welles): "Rosebud". The film engendered controversy (and efforts at suppression in early 1941 through intimidation, blackmail, newspaper smears, discrediting and FBI investigations) because it appeared to fictionalize and unflatteringly caricaturize certain events and individuals in the life of William Randolph Hearst - a powerful newspaper magnate and publisher; it was commonly regarded that although "Rosebud" clearly referred to young Kane's boyhood sled, it was also a symbolic or euphemistic reference to Hearst's pet name for his mistress Marion Davies' clitoris |
 
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| In one of the film's best, most artful, sexually-lustful scenes, con artist Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck) invited brewery heir Charles Pike (Henry Fonda) to sit next to her as she reclined on a chaise in his ocean liner cabin; she leaned over and wrapped her arms around his neck, almost holding it in a vise, and began to caress his hair, face and earlobe - while his eyes closed; as they talked, she also cradled his head with her right arm, and nuzzled close to his cheek - tantalizing him and driving him wild | 
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| John Huston's film noir had one of the more memorable entrances of a homosexual character in a film - detective Sam Spade's (Humphrey Bogart) secretary Effie Perine (Lee Patrick) alerted her boss to a sweet-smelling client who had just arrived in the outer office and presented her with a gardenia-perfumed business card - Spade sniffed the card - reacting with a bemused expression, before the strange, bug-eyed, shifty man - an effeminate, bow-tied Mr. Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), confronted Spade in his office; in the original novel, Cairo was clearly described as "queer" although the film only hinted (quite obviously) at the character's sexual orientation, as he fondled his cane and touched it to his lips |  |
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| Two-Faced Woman (1941) |
This was star Greta Garbo's last film - she played the part of her twin to seductively lure philandering husband Melvyn Douglas away from his ex-mistress Constance Bennett; the film's suggestive and immoral sexuality and Garbo's low-cut gowns were condemned by the Legion of Decency (it was accused of having an "un-Christian attitude toward marriage, suggestive scenes, dialogues and costumes"); an earlier incarnation of the script was denounced and had to be revised so that Douglas was aware of Garbo’s deception | |
| Pin-Up Girls | During the war years, the most sexually-attractive star-actresses of an era would be popularized in seductive poses - usually semi-clad - in pictures, calendars, or mass-produced posters that were usually literally "pinned-up", often with thumbtacks, on bedroom walls, the insides of lockers, even on airplanes, and so forth; this practice started especially amongst GI servicemen away from home during military combat who pined for the 'girl-back-home' - the most popular pin-ups were Betty Grable (the "Girl with the Million Dollar Legs") and Rita Hayworth, followed by Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page, Raquel Welch, Farrah Fawcett, etc. |  |
| Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942) |
A fashion model originally, Esther Williams was showcased in her first film in a small role as Mickey Rooney's love interest, wearing a sexy two-piece white bathing suit- this led to starring roles in Bathing Beauty (1944) and almost two-dozen other extravagant swimming aquacades in the future | 
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| With its suggestive fadeout after Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) fell into Rick Blaine's (Humphrey Bogart) arms in his upstairs apartment, she confessed her love ("if you knew how much I loved you, how much I still love you") and offered a passionate kiss before the fade-out; other aspects of the original script were also toned down - the character of sex-blackmailing Captain Renault (Claude Rains), and the mistaken knowledge of the 'death' of Ilsa's husband to lessen the sense of impropriety of a married woman cheating on her husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) during the Paris sequences; in the film's famous finale at a foggy airport, Rick put patriotism before his passionate love for Ilsa and sacrificed everything ("Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going") |   |
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| La Cena Delle Beffe (1942, It.) (aka The Jester's Banquet) | The Italian film from director Alessandro Blasetti, based on Sem Benelli's 1909 play, was set in the early Renaissance, and was particularly notorious for being the first Italian film made under Fascism (during a time of a Mussolini-controlled Italian film industry) to display a white woman's breasts, in a short shot of actress Clara Calamai (as Ginerva), when her sheer gown was passionately ripped open by one of her young male admirers. The film received tremendous publicity at the time, and was prohibited by the Catholic church. With her few seconds of nakedness, Calamai became the first Italian actress to appear topless onscreen. | 
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| This was a fully-laundered, 'Peyton Place' type film released with none of the scandalous content from the original Henry Bellamann novel about a turn-of-the-century town's squalid secrets (including illicit premarital sex, homosexuality, and father-daughter incest leading to a murder-suicide) - i.e., Cassie's (Betty Field) nymphomania affliction was transformed to insane dementia; before production, Joseph Breen of the Hays Office wrote to the film's producers about his misgivings: "To attempt to translate such a story to the screen, even though it be re-written to conform to the provisions of the Production Code is, in our judgment, a very questionable undertaking from the standpoint of the good and welfare of this industry'; the "surgery" in the novel was not nearly as drastic as that suffered by Ronald Reagan's hedonistic character Drake McHugh, who had his legs unnecessarily amputated ("Where's the rest of me?") |   |
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| When the Hays Code was in full force, Hollywood films had to resort to metaphoric sex, imagery, and double entendres; in this film, the shared use of cigarettes between transformed ugly duckling and Boston spinster Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) and Jerry Durrance (Paul Henreid) served as a metaphor for the sex act; Jerry often performed a seductive two cigarette trick - he placed two cigarettes in his mouth, lighted both of them, and then passed one to Charlotte; smoking became very sexualized in many films [Note: years later, Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway shared a cigarette after having sex in Chinatown (1974)] |  
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| The Gang's All Here (1943) |
This Busby-Berkeley directed and choreographed film, starring Alice Faye and the outrageously-vivacious Brazilian bombshell Carmen Miranda, featured an erotic, symbolic sub-text involving suggestively-phallic, gigantic bananas that were subtly raised and lowered in a spectacular synchronized chorus girls musical number ("The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat"); the sequence escaped US censor's eyes - but it was banned in Argentina, not because of the costumes, but because of the dancers' bare feet |  |
| George Stevens' delightful romantic comedy featured a sexually-exciting apartment front steps kissing scene - it took place on a summer night in wartime Washington DC between Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) and Joe Carter (Joel McCrea), as she vainly attempted to fend off his roaming hands exploring her body (both in and out of view of the camera); it was followed by their own version of the "Walls of Jericho" bedroom scene between their apartment windows |   |
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Producer/director Howard Hughes' notorious 'sex western' film was unjustly famous for the full-busted cleavage of Jane Russell in her portrayal of "half-breed" Rio -- with footage deliberately shot to accentuate her low-cut blouse; the publicity shots were much more revealing, sultry and suggestive than the film itself; it was delayed for a few years due to its defiance of Production Code standards - the censorship board complained and battled over Jane's open display of her ample bosom and cleavage in many scenes; even the outrageous tagline caused a scandal: "What are the two reasons for Jane Russell's rise to stardom?" along with the film's marketing question: "How would you like to tussle with Russell?"; the smash hit film included the wrestling in the hay stable scene with Billy the Kid (Jack Beutel) cautioning her to end her struggling resistance in the dark shadows (Rio: "Let me go" -- Billy: "Hold still, lady, or you won't have much dress left") as the scene faded to black; and later as Rio cared for Billy, she promised: "I'll warm him up"; she bent down (in the uncensored version); and there was an incredible zooming full-face (and lips) closeup when preparing to kiss him; also in other scenes, she was tied up by her wrists, and there was a full-frontal close-up view of Rio galloping along on horseback; the film was first screened for the Hays Office in 1941, then finally released in 1943 in just one San Francisco theater, and then widely released in 1946 without a seal of approval |
     
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Introduction: In the following illustrated compilation are some of the most significant films in the history of sex on the screen. The influential film milestones and their memorable sexual/erotic scenes are thoroughly described. Including portrayals
of sex and/or nudity, these films were often considered quite erotic, groundbreaking,
unique and/or controversial at the time. The following listing of these influential, memorable and classic
sex scenes and films takes into account all of
the available surveys of this type of material, and attempts to provide
an informed, detailed, unranked, chronological (by film title) grouping of the
most influential and groundbreaking films and scenes. Some of the most notorious (or infamous) films are quite
mediocre, usually made as an excuse to display nudity or eroticism of a star performer.
- Milestone Films With Scenes That Were Especially Notorious, Infamous, Controversial, or Scandalous